Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Teen Wolf 3.16 Review: You Can't Fight A Shadow

This is a friendly reminder to all
those that have yet to watch Monday night’s episode of Teen Wolf, titled ‘Illuminated’, that now would be the perfect time
to direct your head away from this screen and to go and watch that. For this is
not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY
CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

Surely it is a sad day when I am
able to wholeheartedly concur that an MTV made series is better than that of
one the big five networks (I’m looking at you CW). More specifically, this show
is several steps ahead of both The
Vampire Diaries and The Originals
in numerous ways. And boy am I glad that at least something of the paranormal
variety is being done well (sorry, Supernatural,
I’m rather disappointed with you as of late).

This series, man, is just
incredibly addictive. I have yet to catch up on either Sleepy Hollow’s two-hour season finale, or the last two episodes of
Almost Human, but I am caught up on
this series. I just have to say how incredibly glad I am that they’ve given us
two half-seasons this year, because this half of the season is so incredibly
tantalizing. I just love everything that’s going on.

So, this week’s episode was set on
Halloween, and our heroes (and some burgeoning heroes, *cough*Ethan and
Aiden*cough*) found themselves being stalked by these masked shadow men – and
I’m not talking the shamans that created the first slayer – these men were
literally shadow-formed men. Very intriguing, and quite obviously difficult to
fight, but fight Derek and Scott did try, rather fruitlessly. A lot of other
stuff happened, but the biggest part of this episode were these synchronous
masked shadow men.

There is a lot going on this
second half of the third season, and while it may not appear to work perfectly
together, I am nonetheless intrigued. I’m trusting the writers to have a plan,
so I’m gathering that they will. They have, after all, seamlessly made it so
that the Scott and Allison split has been natural to the story, as well as
helping either of them to move on – Allison with Isaac, and Scott with new girl
Kira (although I’m still convinced there are remnants of chemistry between
Scott and Lydia, especially as Lydia yelled for Scott as she saw the figures).
So, I trust that they know what they’re doing, seeing as their not pandering to
their own selfish desires, rather than staying true to the story like some
showrunners might (*cough*Julie Plec*cough*).

Let me just say, though, that I
have a lot of questions that will eventually need answers. First, what is Kira,
or what is protecting her? Scott says it’s a fox, but I’m curious to know what
exactly it is, and why it’s protecting her. Also, what did that shadow man do
to Lydia that stopped her banshee scream? And what’s with the marks they’ve put
on the ones they’ve put them on? Were they also planning to mark Scott, when
the sun came up? Or possibly Kira? Were these men – or whatever they are –
brought here because of what Scott, Stiles, and Allison did to save their
respective parents? Is that why all these things are happening now? Did they
kind of forget those issues they were having this episode? And why does
Allison’s father have a broken shadow man mask? Also, why did Stiles have the
key, and possibly leave the message for Barrow? And, finally, what is it
Scott’s father doesn’t want the Sheriff, or Stiles, to know? Like I said, so
many questions, I just hope most of them can eventually get answered.

Some nice moments to mention
regarding this week’s episode, one being the hilarity of Derek with the three
trick or treating kids, from his confused look with them, all the way up to him
scaring them off. As always, the Scott and Stiles bromance – I absolutely adore
these two when they’re on screen together, and how great of a friendship they
have. Also, how loyal they all seem to be to Scott, particularly Isaac, despite
his feelings for Allison. Of course, I can’t go without remarking on Stiles awesome dance moves. Really, he was
killing it on the dance floor (note the tone of sarcasm in my writing). Also,
the fact that my second last note regarding this episode was: Damn, it’s over.
This week was just jam-packed with greatness, I could go on and on about little
moments in the episode, but I’ll just finish by saying I wish it never ended.

All in all, this series has
definitely come together. The first couple of seasons were definitely well
built, for the most part, but it’s really beginning to hit its stride. It’s
even giving me strong feelings of remembrance to the good old days of the WB,
when great shows like Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, Angel, and GilmoreGirls were on the air with their terrific dialogue and witty
characters. You don’t get that a lot these days. I can see it in Revolution, but not much else I’m
currently watching has a good enough feel to it. Although I do question what the
point of adding techno to the opening credits was all about. Otherwise, I’m
really happy with the way this show is going, and am glad to see how greatly
some of the acting has improved.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

Best Lines:

“To be honest, I don’t believe a word Stiles has said since
he learned how to speak.” – the Sheriff states.

Okay, apologies for not writing any reviews in a couple
weeks, I’ve been in a bit of a funk review-wise lately. But I’m going to review
all shows I deem have enough material for me to write about. This is one of
those series, as is Revolution. But I’m
not quite sure what else between here and that will get reviewed. So don’t
expect reviews for all shows listed every week. I will try to review one or two
episodes a day. Unfortunately, I’ve felt more like re-watching Buffy and Angel simultaneously at the moment, so it may not be very scheduled
for the time being.